Livebait Leeds

I hadn’t been to Livebait in Leeds before – I have to say that even though I am getting more into fish, the thought of a “seafood restaurant” still scares me a little. But I like trying new things so when they offered me the opportunity to review the restaurant, I thought I may as well give it a go.

The restaurant itself is on The Calls, close to other nice pubs but not directly in the city centre, so for a Saturday night, the restaurant wasn’t that busy. The decor and atmosphere feels warm and friendly though; exposed brick and blackboards with daily specials give it a nice informal feel, the sort of place you’d like to relax with friends. I can’t really fault the hosting either, but as when you know someone is watching you and going to write up about your place, you’d probably make the effort too. I like to judge how other tables are waited on and everyone seemed content with the service.

There’s a good selection of daily specials varying on what’s in season and what’s available, plus I noticed they do a 3 course meal for £12.95 serving things like traditional fish & chips.

For starter I ordered the scallops with a curried butternut squash puree/sauce – I got 4 scallops priced at £10 and Mr LTT has calamari. It was all perfectly cooked but I did think the flavour of the sauce was overpowering to the sweet and gentle flavour of the scallops, and the amount of sauce was too much. The calamari was good although the batter could’ve been a little crispier but the aioli that accompanied it was delicious.

For main I ordered a platter which consisted of 6 crevettes and ½ pint of prawns, all shell on. These arrived cooked in garlic butter and a squeeze of lemon. They were delicious, I’m so addicted to prawns! I love peeling them to get the prawny reward. Mr Ltt had mackerel which he loved along with some chips and green beans. The presentation is simple but I don’t like overfancyness. That’s what’s great about it – the mackerel was simply chargrilled, making the most of the fresh fish flavours.

We decided to share a dessert and ordered the tarte tatin. When we started eating, we really wished we’d ordered two. It was so delicious that we ended up spoon fighting over it. The waiter told me people really loved this latest addition to the pudding menu!

I really enjoyed the whole dining experience and it’s definitely a place I’d go to again – the meals aren’t too expensive (main meals under £15, plus that three course meal for £12.95). I also spied 2 glasses of champagne and 6 oysters for £15.

You can find out about Livebait on their website. FYI, Livebait used to be part of a big chain but Livebait Leeds and Livebait Manchester are now owned by an independent company.

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Hi! I'm Becs, one half of a newlywed couple from Leeds. I really love baking and a lot of the things I make are dairy-free since Mr LTT is dairy intolerant. Sometimes I make healthy stuff too. My desert island food would be dim sum!

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